A.D. 381 heretics, pagans, and the dawn of the monotheistic state ( PDFDrive )

image of God, then there may be traces of the tripartite Godhead in the human
mind. Somewhat arbitrarily, perhaps, he divides the mind into three parts: the
mind itself, its knowledge of itself and its love of itself. All three are of the same
substance and equal - just like the Trinity. Self-knowledge and self-love process
from the mind, but here the analogy breaks down: one can hardly call ‘the mind’
the ‘Father’ of ‘self-knowledge’ and ‘self-love’. 17 In Book X, Augustine
discusses the human faculties memory, understanding and will, which enjoy the
same relationship - although it is hard to see how the three of them work
together as a single force. Nevertheless, this analogy is an imaginative idea that
suggests an intimate link between God and humanity. As one commentator has
put it: Augustine ‘suggests that we will only find ourselves if we look for God,
and that only in finding ourselves will we find God’. 18 This seems a good
starting point for further reflection, and even if the analogy of the human mind
echoing the Trinity is not always convincing, Augustine’s insights are often seen
as an important contribution to the philosophy of mind.
Ultimately, De Trinitate is overwhelming and was unsurpassed for centuries.
Thomas Aquinas’ Treatise on the Trinity is largely a sophisticated restatement of
Augustine’s ideas while in the Protestant tradition, Calvin adopts Augustine’s
interpretations of scripture. 19 Perhaps the vital point to make here is that the
Trinity does not excite the imagination. Edmund Hill, a recent translator of the
work, talks of how ‘it has come about that the doctrine of the Trinity has been
effectively detached from the wider movements of Christian spirituality and
devotion in the west, and the mystery has come to be regarded as a curious kind
of intellectual luxury of theological highbrows, a subject on which not many
priests are eager to preach sermons, nor congregations to listen to them’. 20 This,
according to Hill, is because later generations, especially those in the Middle
Ages, missed the point that Augustine was providing a complete programme for
the Christian spiritual life, although it is true that the doctrine of the Trinity has
perplexed theologians and laymen alike through the centuries. 21 The contrast
with the drama of the Nativity, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection of Christ to
which ordinary believers could easily relate is obvious. De Trinitate shows that
the whole discussion of the Trinity takes place at a forbiddingly erudite level, far
above the comprehension of all but the most sophisticated minds. More than
1,600 years later, the German theologian Karl Rahner was to note that the
everyday devotional beliefs of most Catholics would not change at all if there